1906 was a tough year for Charles Darwin Gillespie. Gillespie, an infamous saloon owner and liquor runner was being sued for $20,000, a fortune at the time. It was only ten years earlier that Charles Darwin Gillespie left Virginia in a pair of dusty boots, a derby hat, and his only black suit. He arrived […]
It’s the first week of April, and here along the Allegheny ridges the peepers have emerged. Spring peepers, for those who don’t know, are small frogs that exchange a choral mating serenade in the night, or just after a light rain. The sound is something stranger than birds and louder than crickets. For those who […]
Eldridge McComb spent much of his life farming in Pocahontas County, West Virginia. The stories he told spanned generations, from memories of the 1930s to his thoughts on modern day agriculture. Eldridge passed away in 2007. In exploring this area’s farming history, Traveling 219 listened to these interviews, recorded in his later years, to look […]
Last weekend the isolated Randolph county town of Pickens drew a couple thousand visitors to eat at the annual Maple Syrup Festival. About 45 gallons of fresh West Virginia Maple Syrup were consumed in two days at the Pickens pancake breakfasts. After I grabbed a plate of buckwheat pancakes and sausage, I met up with […]
Bear hunting is a long running tradition in the mountains along US 219. It started more than 200 years ago, when farmers began to run sheep on their hill farms and the native black bear discovered a new food source. Nowadays bear hunting is a high tech sport, with radio tracking systems, GPS, and CB […]
[click to view larger image] For more on Renick from Traveling 219, click here to visit our Renick page and listen to the audio stories.
This past weekend the little town of Helvetia tried its best to frighten away Old Man Winter at its Fasnacht festival. Hundreds of people thronged the streets of the remote Swiss community, many of them squeezing into the community hall for the square dance. People this year had large, papier-mâché masks that resembled long nosed-monsters, […]
Joe Riley grew up in a farming family in Stomping Creek, West Virginia. After graduating from West Virginia University, Joe became an Agriculture teacher and taught for 17 years before becoming principal of Marlinton Middle School. Joe runs his family farm with his wife and children, working long hours before and after his school job. […]
The C.J. Richardson Hardware & Furniture store has been a staple of the town of Marlinton for over a hundred years. Around 1904, it moved from the west bank of the Greenbrier River to its current location in downtown Marlinton. Today C.J. Richardson’s is still considered a local treasure; walking through the door will make […]
Recently, we published a story about the Tygart Valley Homestead (you can see that here). Sonny Knaggs and Lana Butcher both grew up in Dailey, West Virginia. Dailey was originally built as one of three communities of the Tygart Valley Homestead, a Great Depression-era resettlement and relief project by the federal government. The Tygart Valley Homestead […]
Click the map to download a high-resolution copy of the Traveling 219 map, or pick up a hard copy at one of many locations along U.S. Route 219. You may also view our interactive map of Traveling 219 stories [HERE].
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